The Birds Continued
by BlueBubbles
Summary: If you ever read the short story, "The Birds," you know it has an open ending. This is my continuation of the story!


*Author's Note* Hello everyone! If you ever read the short story, "The Birds," then you'll know it had a very open ending. This is my continuation of what happens that I wrote for Englich class a while ago! Enjoy and REVIEW!  
  
*Disclaimer* I don't anything, the author does.  
  
I'll smoke that last cigarette," he said to his wife. "Stupid of me - it was the one thing I forgot from the farm." He reached for it, switched on the silent wireless. He threw the empty packet on the fire and watched it burn.  
  
Nat Hocken knew that he, his wife, and two children could no longer take shelter in his boarded-up house. It was only a matter of time before the birds broke through his make-shift defense. He had to get himself and his children away from the birds, but where would he go? He certainly couldn't walk. The nearest town was over forty miles away. He couldn't go by boat. The gulls had taken over the sea. The only possible way to leave was by taking the Trigg's old car, but the windows were broken.  
  
"That will have to do," Nat thought to himself. If they could at least get into town, they might be able to find shelter. Even if they never were able to find a place to protect themselves from the birds, it was better then waiting around in his house, wondering when the birds would come pouring through the doors or one of the windows.  
  
"It will be better if it's quick," thought Nat.  
  
Nat looked over at his family. His children and wife were now asleep on the mattress. He might as well prepare a few things before the tide turned in the morning. He got up as quietly as he could and gathered some food and placed it in a wicker basket. He also got a hammer and some nails, just in case he would have to board anything up in town. Nat then sat down next to the mattress on the floor. The banging of the birds on the walls and windows was Nat's lullaby as he drifted off to sleep.  
  
"Hey Dad get up, the birds stopped," Jill said while shaking him.  
  
Nat slowly opened his eyes. All the memories of the past few nights flooded his mind at once and he had to shake his head to get them all straight.  
  
"Oh yeah," he thought to himself, "We're going to leave today. I shouldn't have fallen asleep. We would have been able to get a head start, if only I."  
  
"Hey Dad, what's in the basket?" His son's voice brought him back to reality.  
  
Nat smiled at his son and answered, "Some food. We're going on a picnic in town today."  
  
"What about the birds?" asked his daughter impatiently.  
  
"Now don't you worry about any of those birds. We're going to be just fine," answered Nat. "Now let's get into the old Trigg truck and be on our way."  
  
Nat and his family were now driving down the dirt path that led from their peninsula to town. Nat was driving and his wife had Johnny on her lap. Jill was squeezed between them holding the basket.  
  
"Do you really think this is the right idea?" Nat's wife asked him, brushing away a stray lock of hair that had blown into her face.  
  
"Trust me," replied Nat.  
  
The family sat in silence as they watched the blur of thousands of glossy- eyed birds which sat in the fields, bushes, and trees around them. Suddenly, Jill spoke up. "Doesn't the moon seem a bit funny today?" she said.  
  
Nat looked up into the sky. Even though it was day time, the moon was out. It was glowing a strange orange color and seemed to have an eerie aura around it.  
  
Nat remembered back to when he was in the army. One of his fellow soldiers was a sailor and he always talked about how the moon controlled the tide. Nat always thought that the soldier was making up the stories. He thought that they were all just fiction to keep him and his comrades entertained. If the moon was controlling the tides, did that also mean it was controlling the birds?  
  
"Nonsense," Nat thought, "it's just a legend, a fairy-tale, a."  
  
Nat's thoughts we're interrupted when he heard a loud crash from the truck's engine. Smoke was coming out of the hood as the automobile came to a stop.  
  
"Oh no," mumbled Nat's wife. Nat got out of the truck and opened up the hood. A dead bird was stuck in one of the pipes and part of the engine was on fire. Nat's family had slowly come out of the truck and was standing behind Nat. "Can you fix it?" asked Nat's wife, her voice trembling a little.  
  
"I, I don't think." Nat was interrupted when he heard a familiar, soft wind- like sound. He turned in the direction the sound was coming from and almost screamed at the sight in front of him. the birds! They we're coming towards them. Millions of them were flying like a blanket of darkness across the sky.  
  
His children started crying and his wife stared in horror. Nat just simply walked near them and embraced them in a hug. He knew it was all over. All of his attempts at trying to save his family were a failure. He had just postponed the inevitable. Nat looked up at the sky and the glowing moon and almost gasped at the sight he saw. A dark shadow was falling across the moon; an eclipse.  
  
"Will the eclipse stop the birds?" Nat thought.  
  
Nat squeezed his eyes shut and prayed that somehow he and his family would be saved. The light sound of the bird's flapping wings had now become a roar.  
  
"Only a few more seconds and it will all be over," he thought.  
  
Suddenly, the roar of flapping wings stopped. Nat looked up and less then ten feet away he saw millions of birds on the ground, staring up at him. Nat then noticed that the shadow on the moon had fully covered it and the sky was an eerie orange. Before Nat could do anything, the shadow started moving off the moon. The birds took up their flight once again, but they did not attack the Hockens. Instead, they flew in separate directions, separating into different species.  
  
"It's over," mumbled Nat. "It's finally over!" Nat gave his family a comforting hug. They were going to be alright. They had survived. Nat didn't know why the moon made the birds act the way they did, but at this point in time he didn't care. Nothing mattered except the safety of his family. Nat looked up at the sky. The moon had returned to its original color.  
  
"It's over," Nat said one more time, "It's finally over!"  
  
*Author's Note* Wow, rereading this, I realized my ending was pretty open, too. oh well. Ok now be really really nice and REVIEW! 


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